Bradley Wiggins, whether or not he beats Cadel Evans to win the Tour de France this year, owes much to the Australian, the Team Sky leader revealed, having been inspired in part to go for glory by watching Evans's gritty win in 2011. Wiggins was sidelined for the final two weeks of the Tour last year after a crash which left him with a broken collarbone, but watching Evans fight back to win the race had an effect on how he views his own chances.

"I see myself as a very similar rider," said Wiggins. "What he did was inspirational; the way he won it inspired me to do it for myself. Cadel isn't the best climber but he can climb with the best. I found the manner in which he won the Tour last year to be inspirational. He had a wobbly moment on Col du Télégraphe on the stage that finished on top of the Galibier but fought back to win the yellow jersey in the time trial.

"I saw it as the way I could win the Tour some day. It's not about being the best time triallist or climber but about getting all the tools to be a great all-rounder."

Wiggins added that he felt the most impressive moment in Evans's Tour win to be the occasion when he had to get a grip of the race on the stage to the top of the Galibier, with Andy Schleck ahead in a strong position. "At the top of the [Col de] Lautaret, before you turn left to go up the Galibier, he was isolated, the last rider from the BMC team, the race was going away from him. He took the race on and emptied himself to the summit. That set a benchmark for the way we train, what we need to do to win the Tour."

The Briton, a three-times Olympic gold medallist, will travel to the Tour start in Liège next week as the bookies' favourite, a position which he feels he can enjoy. "It's a positive thing, a good position to be in. No one would have had me as a favourite for the Tour de France a few years ago so it's a mark of how I have moved on. I'll try to embrace it – it may never happen again."

Sky will start the Tour with the world road champion Mark Cavendish in their lineup as well, and Wiggins said they have yet to finalise a strategy for having the pair in the same colours with different objectives. "Everyone assumes Cav wants to win green but I don't know what his objectives are. The selection is being finalised, the strategy is being finalised at the moment. I know he's put in a lot of time and effort into trying to win the Olympic road race and I don't know if the green jersey is part of that. Dave [Brailsford] and his team will make the strategy and if we do go for green I know they will have put a lot of thought and consideration into it."

Sky are likely to name their Tour de France team this week, possibly on Thursday. Among the seven riders joining Wiggins and Cavendish are expected to be Wiggins's four training partners, Mike Rogers and Richie Porte of Australia, the Belarussian Kanstantsin Siutsou and the Kenya-born Briton Chris Froome, and last year's double stage winner Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway.